One of Scotland's best-known contemporary dramatists, David Greig has been presenting plays at the Festival for a decade. Last year his World War II-themed drama, Outlying Islands won the Critics Award (Best New Play) for Theatre in Scotland. He recently translated Albert Camus's Caligula for the Donmar Warehouse, London.

A nigh on irresistible prospect, this. The Scottish premiere of David Greig's magnificent play about language, space and love also marks the re-opening of the Tron Theatre after a £5m redevelopment and artistic director Irina Brown's swansong production at the venue. And then there's the title - The Cosmonaut's Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union. If only there were prizes for such things.

Caledonia and Catalonia: both are ancient European nations with strong cultural traditions. But an intriguing joint commission by the Edinburgh Festival and the Grec Festival, Barcelona, of two new plays, both presented by the Traverse Theatre Company at the Royal Lyceum, also highlights key differences: David Greig's The Speculator is a sprawling epic on public themes while Lluisa Cunille's The Meeting is a more private play about urban isolation.